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Sunday, May 3, 2015

TBE? Floyd Mayweather v. Manny Pacquiao

The Match of the Century has come and gone and despite there being a unanimous decision, there is still a huge controversy amongst those who watched the fight.

Honest to God, every time with this!

Outboxers win on points, swarmers win on KOs. It rolls like that almost every time.

Your reigning WBA, WBC, WBO, and The Ring Welterweight Champion

Don't get mad at Floyd for "running." Get mad at Manny for not having the pressure to put him down.

Boxing isn't scored by who throws the most punches. Boxing isn't scored by who lands the most punches, either, but that is a factor that influences the judge. Simple math really. Take the number of punches that landed and divide them by the number of punches thrown and you will see the boxer's accuracy for that round. This is a much more important figure than the illustrious "fierce aggressive flurry of attacks" ever will be.

This is called clinching, not hugging.
It's a tactic to stop an opponent's striking on the inside.
It is up to the referee's discretion if he will penalize a fighter for overusing this technique.

It may be a nerdy example, but think about Street Fighter. You're using Ryu. He's awesome. He throws fireballs and hits a vicious uppercut! You go on the offensive and are punching and kicking and Hadouken-ing all over your opponent. But your friend picked Guile. And this whole time, he's holding back in his joystick and taking minimal chip damage, then suddenly BAM he hits you with the Flash Kick, you lose a chunk of health bar and he goes right back into being a turtle in the corner, picking a few little counter hits. Then the clock runs out, and he wins. You're mad, sure. And you should be. He didn't fight "like a man"! But wait... there's nothing in the rulebook about having only one style of fighting. And the game is very clear about the rules, and why you lost. You didn't fight in a way that could get around that defense and deliver more damage than his counters.

Need a more realistic sports analogy? A football team is raking in the yardage, but keeps getting stopped in the redzone, unable to score a touchdown, and ends up having a turnover. Their opponent isn't getting quite as much yardage, but they get close enough to chip in a few field goals. Now, it's the 4th quarter, and the field goal team is up 9-7, they get the ball with a minute left in the game. What do you think they do? They're up on points and have four downs to use. Of course they take a knee and run out the clock. Is that as fun to watch? No. I fully admit having MANY games frustrate me because the other team did this instead of fighting it out. Giving my team a chance to score that incredible play and win!

Can't touch this. Nah-nah-na-na!

But why should the team that is winning risk it? Give up that minute and win. So what? They win. A boxer can give up round 12 when he knows he outworked his opponent the rest of the match, and usually said opponent is worn out and can't do enough to win that round either.

What judges do score is who controlled the ring. Who kept the fight at the pace they wanted. Who landed the more serious blows.

Yes, in certain cases, one fighter could land 45 hits in a round, while another got three or four strong counter blows that visibly affected the first fighter, and the counter-puncher may be awarded the round. It may seem unfair, but judges have their own preferences of what is a better performance just like fans do.

Floyd actually had more landed blows AND a higher accuracy.

The only certain way to judge points is by a knockdown or a referee delivering a penalty.

Neither happened tonight.

Manny Pacquiao was outfought. Floyd Mayweather was not knocked down.

And I swear, people who talk about Muhammad Ali in comparison obviously never watched many (any?) of his matches! Not the Will Smith movie, but the ACTUAL fights, and not some greatest hits collection either. Ali was an outboxer and ran around the ring, pissing people off like crazy. Then he told everyone he was the greatest. And he was for his time.

Just like Floyd Mayweather is for our time.

#Fact

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